United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit
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Scribd Government DocsUnited States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit
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Scribd Government Docs292 F.
2d 492
Albert J. KOSTAL and Arthur J. Watson, Appellants,
v.
Christian D. STONER, Judge, First Judicial District of
Colorado and Bernard P.O'Kane, District Attorney,
First Judicial District, State of
Colorado, Appellees.
No. 6706.
United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.
July 5, 1961.
Terry Noble Fiske, Denver, Colo. (Appellants filed a brief pro se), for
appellants.
William F. Dwyer and Bernard P. O'Kane, Denver, Colo. (F. E. Dickerson
and Thomas J. Morrissey, Denver, Colo. on the brief), for appellees.
Before PHILLIPS, PICKETT and LEWIS, Circuit Judges.
PICKETT, Circuit Judge.
The plaintiffs were informed against and tried in the District Court of
Jefferson County, Colorado, for the murder of Raymond Isley on
December 9, 1956. They were convicted of murder in the first degree, and
sentenced to be executed. The judgment was reversed by the Colorado
Supreme Court, and the cause was remanded for a new trial. Kostal v.
State, Colo., 357 P.2d 70, certiorari denied 365 U.S. 804, 81 S.Ct. 471, 5
L.Ed.2d 462. Shortly thereafter, this action was brought against the
defendant Stoner, the presiding judge, and the defendant O'Kane, the
prosecuting attorney, to recover damages for the alleged violation of the
Civil Rights Act. 42 U.S.C.A. 1983, 1985(3). This is an appeal from two
orders severally dismissing the complaint as to each of the defendants for
failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.
The substance of the complaint is that the defendants, while performing
their official duties as District Judge and District Attorney, respectively, in
the prosecution of the aforesaid murder case, acting under color of state
law and in their official capacities, conspired together in the judge's
chambers to deprive the plaintiffs of a fair trial, as guaranteed by the 14th
Amendment to the United States Constitution. The acts alleged as being
done in furtherance of the conspiracy are the subornation of perjured
testimony, the suppression of evidence vital to the plaintiffs' defense, and
the admission of evidence of other offenses committed by the accused.
Plainly the complaint attempts to state a cause of action against the
presiding judge and the prosecuting attorney for acts and conduct which
occurred in the performance of their official duties during the trial of a
criminal case. The case was admittedly within the jurisdiction of the court
over which the defendant judge presided, and the prosecution of the case
was a part of the official duties of the defendant prosecuting attorney.
We have held that the Civil Rights Act does not impair the traditional
common law immunity of judges from personal liability in damages for
their official acts in matters within their jurisdiction. Spriggs v. Pioneer
Carissa Gold Mines, Inc., 10 Cir., 251 F.2d 61, certiorari denied 356 U.S.
950, 78 S.Ct. 914, 2 L.Ed.2d 843; Ryan v. Scoggin, 10 Cir., 245 F.2d 54;
See Bottone v. Lindsley, 10 Cir., 170 F.2d 705, certiorari denied 336 U.S.
944, 69 S.Ct. 810, 93 L.Ed. 1101. In Alzua v. Johnson, 231 U.S. 106, 34
S.Ct. 27, 29, 58 L.Ed. 142, an action for damages was brought against a
Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands. The complaint
alleged that the defendant was guilty of malfeasance in rendering two
appellate opinions which were adverse to the plaintiff. In holding the
Justice immune from an action for damages, the Court said:
'* * * we regard it as fundamental that the immunity of the defendant from this
suit is the same as that of judges in the United States, which is established
beyond dispute. Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335 (20 L.Ed. 646);1 Randall v.
Brigham, 7 Wall. 523 (19 L.Ed. 285).'
The prosecuting attorney is a judicial, or quasi-judicial officer, and when
performing his official duties he enjoys the same immunity from liability for
damages that protects a judge who acts within his jurisdiction over parties and
litigation. Stift v. Lynch, 7 Cir., 267 F.2d 237; Peckham v. Scanlon, 7 Cir., 241
F.2d 761; Thompson v. Heither, 6 Cir.,235 F.2d 176, appeal dismissed 352 U.S.
921, 77 S.Ct. 232, 1 L.Ed.2d 158; Kenney v. Fox, 6 Cir., 232 F.2d 288,
certiorari denied Kenney v. Killian,352 U.S. 855, 77 S.Ct. 84, 1 L.Ed.2d 66;
Jennings v. Nester, 7 Cir., 217 F.2d 153, certiorari denied 349 U.S. 958, 75
S.Ct. 888, 99 L.Ed. 1281; Cawley v. Warren, 7 Cir., 216 F.2d 74; 27 C.J.S.
District & Prosecuting Attorneys 16.
3
Affirmed.
In Cawley v. Warren, 7 Cir., 216 F.2d 74, 75-76, the Court stated the reason for
this rule of immunity by quoting from Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 20
L.Ed. 646, as follows:
'* * * 'For it is a general principle of the highest importance to the proper
administration of justice that a judicial officer, in exercising the authority
vested in him, shall be free to act upon his own convictions, without
apprehension of personal consequence to himself. Liability to answer to
everyone who might feel himself aggrieved by the action of the judge, would
be inconsistent with the possession of this freedom, and would destroy that
independence without which no judiciary can be either respectable or useful. *
* * Nor can this exemption of the judges from civil liability be affected by the
motives with which their judicial acts are performed. The purity of their
motives cannot in this way be the subject of judicial inquiry. * * * If civil
actions could be maintained in such cases against the judge, because the losing
party should see fit to allege in his complaint that the acts of the judge were
done with partiality, or maliciously, or corruptly, the protection essential to
judicial independence would be entirely swept away. Few persons sufficiently
irritated to institute an action against a judge for his judicial acts would hesitate
to ascribe any character to the acts which would be essential to the maintenance
of the action."
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